The Lisbon Lions boys varsity basketball season came to an last week, but head coach Brandon Horman, in his second year with the team, said they “rose to the occasion.”
The group finished 17-6 overall, and second only to Easton Valley in the Tri-Rivers East conference standings.
“One of the things with this group of guys,” said Horman, “is just how much more together as a team they’ve become. It was definitely a point of emphasis for us, making sure that we were a better basketball team, but, more importantly, that we were better people, better kids, doing things more for others,” said the coach.
He was looking for cohesion among the teammates, for support.
“They all rose to that occasion,” Horman said.
In his first season, 2020-21, the coach said, the team “was more one-dimensional.”
This year, with the team shooting 50.1 percent from the field, and seven to eight boys in regular rotation, “You didn’t know where our scoring was going to come from.”
That said, it would be hard to overlook a pair of contributions from seniors Kole Becker and Tyson Scott.
Becker led the Lions in scoring by a small margin, pumping in 313 points to Scott’s 310.
The coach noted that Becker ended his career with over 1,000 points (1,003), setting that milestone in the final game he would play as a Lion.
Scott wrapped his own high school career as the all-time leading rebounder for Lisbon, pulling in 689 over his tenure. He also tied the single-season rebounding record of 223 with Bailey Arwine about five years ago.
“Tyson had a heck of a senior year here for us,” said Horman. You’re not going to find somebody out on the court who is going to play any harder than he does. He’s just an awesome kid.”
With six seniors leaving the team, “other guys are going to have an opportunity to step up” next season.
Underclassmen waiting in the wings “see where Lisbon basketball’s at right now, and that’s their goal — to keep it there, and move beyond it,” Horman said.